AMA Journal of Ethics®

Illuminating the art of medicine

AMA Journal of Ethics®

Illuminating the art of medicine

Virtual Mentor. December 2012, Volume 14, Number 12: 925-1039.

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December 2012 Contents

Getting into Medical School and Residency

Ethics Poll

As pointed out in this month's medical education article, many European medical schools admit students on the basis of admissions exam scores and grade point average only. Such quantitative admission systems can be defended as being fully transparent, merit-based, and without subjectivity. Which of the following best describes what you think about this system versus the American system, which allows student interviews, character references, personality traits, and demographic information to influence admissions?

The American system is better because it produces a more diverse student body.

The American system is better because honesty and compassion are as important as academic excellence in physicians.

The American system is better because people without the best secondary education get a chance to see whether they can succeed in medical school.

The European system is better because, ultimately, the best physicians are those who can think well, learn and retain information, and analyze new situations, all measurable cognitive skills.

The European system is better because the American system is highly subjective and subjective ratings of candidates are not reliable predictors of success in medical school.

The European system is better because it is less vulnerable to favoritism, prejudice, and “gaming.”

Many colleges and universities, including medical schools and law schools, give special consideration to applicants whose parents or grandparents graduated from that school. These “legacy” applicants get an even greater admission boost, so to speak, if their forbears were donors to the institution. All things considered, do you think such a system is justifiable?

Yes.

No.

Don’t know.

One subjective component to admission to medical school and residency training in the U.S. is the personal letter of recommendation (medical school) and the dean's letter or medical student performance evaluation (residency training). Studies have shown that writers of these letters use different terms when describing similar traits in male and female students and that the sex of the writer also influences the adjectives used. Which of the following best describes what you think about these of “gender-correlated differences in language”?

Nothing wrong with it; men and women are different.

Studies should be done to identify which pairs of words refer to the same characteristics in men and women, respectively, and that information should be available to those who evaluate applicants.

Writers and readers of such letters should have mandatory sensitivity training so that they can write in gender-neutral terms and interpret the letters of those who do not write in gender-neutral terms.